Streamed Live
by Poet Wroet
Summary: "Load of crap, that. It was streamed live. I'm the only one who hasn't watched those recordings, although I do know what happened." Reid says to Rossi. Of course Reid didn't watch the recordings - he lived through them. Reid and Rossi talk about the reactions of the team to the live murder in "The Internet Is Forever" Episode Tag: 5x22 Spoilers: 2x14 2x15 Hotch, Reid, Rossi gen
1. Streamed Live

"What was the matter with that video?" David Rossi asked Spencer Reid. "Everyone looked – well – as though they were reminded of something. Except for you, that is."

Reid swallowed. "Dave – let's have a drink once this case is over, alright?"

Rossi raised an eyebrow. So there was a story there. "Alright," he said amiably.

Two days after that conversation, Rossi approached Reid. "Do you have time for that drink, then?" he asked.

Reid looked resigned. "There's a place down the street," he offered.

Rossi nodded. "Let's go, then."

Rossi ordered a scotch and Reid ordered a coffee.

"So, what's up with the video?" Rossi asked after their drinks had been served.

Reid looked thoughtful for a moment. "Have you ever heard of the Hankel case? It was in Georgia, a few years ago. The last Superbowl before you joined the team, in fact. It started right after the party."

Rossi nodded. "I've heard of that one. An agent was kidnapped, I think? There are all sorts of rumors about that case."

Reid looked interested. "Like what?"

"An agent got kidnapped and played two or three rounds of Russian Roulette, and had his foot whipped, or something. Some say – oh. There was a recording of the whole thing found after the fact, I think." Rossi started to realize the point.

Reid snorted. "Load of crap, that. It was streamed live. I'm the only one who hasn't watched those recordings, although I do know what happened." Reid was swearing uncharacteristically.

"That explains something, at least," Rossi said. "So they were reminded of the agent being held at the mercy of an unsub?"

"No," Reid corrected softly. "The agent was also killed and given CPR. The unsub had DID – one of his personalities, Tobias, was scared by the personality of his father, I guess, but sympathized with the agent who was also a victim of the personality of his father, so he gave him CPR."

"What else happened?" Rossi was interested now.

"The agent was held for three days – so I guess you could say he was starved – and was whipped, beaten, forced to play four rounds of Russian Roulette, had to choose who was going to be killed, had to choose one of his team members to be killed, and was drugged by Tobias, because according to him, it helped. CPR and the whipping broke a few bones." Reid gave a strange sort of shrug. "Not everything was streamed, though. Meanwhile, the agent told the BAU where he was being held through some clues. He was digging his own grave and managed to trick the unsub into giving him access to his gun. The cavalry stormed in about ten seconds after he had shot the unsub."

Rossi blinked. "I need another drink," he said signaling for the bartender. "Sure you don't want a beer?"

Reid gave Rossi a withering look. "I told you the agent was drugged, didn't I? Rossi, I'm in NA." He threw a coin on the table.

With that, Reid left the bar.

Rossi sat still for about half a minute, until the bartender shook him out of his shock. "Two scotch, please," he ordered. He really needed a drink.

He'd really fucked up, hadn't he? Reid had practically spelled it out for him – Reid was the only one who hadn't been watching those recordings, Reid knew exactly what had happened – even what wasn't in the recordings. Reid had never said 'we' when talking about what the BAU did during that case, yet Rossi knew that Reid had been on the team by then. And Rossi had always treated Reid as a high school kid who hadn't gotten blood on his hands – not that of another, and certainly not his own.

Rossi picked up the coin Reid had thrown. It was a bronze three year coin from NA.

"Crap," he uttered.


	2. How To Respond

**Because of popular demand, here is another chapter. I also slightly altered the ending of the previous chapter.**

"I'm surprised we're flying back now, and not waiting until tomorrow," Rossi commented to Hotch on the plane back to DC.

Hotch nodded absentmindedly. "Reid asked to. He has an appointment," he said.

"NA?" Rossi guessed.

Hotch startled. "No, he's going to a movie," he said after a moment while glaring at Rossi.

"Of course," Rossi said. "I might have messed up there," he added guiltily.

"What do you mean?" Hotch said, frowning.

"I asked him why you were all so.. tense, when watching that video. As though you were reminded of something else."

"Dave, you didn't," Hotch said reprovingly.

Rossi shrugged helplessly. "I didn't know, alright? Then he told me about that case in Georgia, practically spelling out for me that it was him, and I just didn't get it. He just flipped a coin on the table." Rossi was silent for a moment. "It was a three year coin. I really messed up, didn't I?"

"I received it last month," a soft voice said from behind Rossi. "Would you mind returning it to me?" Reid stepped forward, so he was standing next to the table Rossi and Hotch were sitting at. He was fidgeting.

Rossi's hand immediately went to his pocket. "Reid, I'm sorry," he began as he handed Reid the coin.

Reid just shrugged. "So am I." He then continued to his seat, where he sat down, staring at the coin and occasionally playing with it – making it appear and disappear in his hands.

Rossi didn't miss Reid's slightly trembling hands, nor the way he kept fidgeting and how he sometimes had to stop himself from scratching at his inner elbows.

Nor did Hotch. "He'll be alright," he said after a few minutes. "He's strong."

Rossi had to keep himself from snorting. "He's had to be," he said. "Who did he pick? To die, I mean."

Hotch shook himself out of his musings. "Himself, himself, himself, himself and me," Hotch said softly. "I choose Aaron Hotchner. He's a classic narcissist. He thinks he's better than everyone else on the team. Genesis 23:4. Let him not deceive himself and trust in emptiness, vanity, falseness and futility, for these shall be his recompense," he recited softly. "Do you know what Genesis 23:4 really says?" Hotch didn't wait for an answer. "'I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me property, forbear a place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.'" Hotch sighed. "Reid was held in a graveyard. He was as high as a kite – by all rights, he should have OD'd – and he still managed to get that clue across. It was pure luck I remembered we had argued about the definition of classic narcissism – the rest of the team was too shocked to really think about it, you know?"

"You found him, though," Rossi said. He could see Hotch was feeling guilty.

"We did. We found him waiting for us next to the still warm body of Tobias Hankel. And you know what he did? He gave me a hug and told me that he knew I'd understand." Hotch gave a humorless laugh. "The clue I told you about was the second clue. We didn't even know there was an earlier clue until after that second one."

Rossi was silent. He didn't really know how to respond to that.


End file.
